I really struggled to pick a favourite book from last week. Not because I didn’t like anything, but there wasn’t one book I really wanted to shout about – except my book club book – and that’s not out til next month, so I’ll tell you about that when you can actually buy it!
In the end, I have settled on Charlaine Harris’s Midnight Crossroad – which I got through NetGalley*. It’s the first book in her new series (I think it’s pegged at three books) – and her first post-Sookie creation. I’ve now read all of the Southern Vampire series, all of the Harper Connelly series, all of the Lily Bard series – and three of the Aurora Teagardens** so I guess you could say that I’m a fan. I find her books really easy to read, her world building ticks my boxes and although each series clearly does have a formula, they are original enough that they don’t seem like the same book with new names if you know what I mean.
So Midnight Crossing is the convergence of the supernatural world of Sookie – and the worlds that we’ve seen in her other series – and to me it seems to try to root them all firmly in the same universe – which is something I’ve always wondered about. There are some familiar faces from the previous series – and I’ve had trouble writing this without giving you spoilers.
The residents of Midnight might look normal (mostly), but they’re all hiding something. Manfred has just moved to town and is about to discover that still waters really do run deep. Ummmm. And that’s about all I can say without giving too much away. The story has multiple points of view, which can be a bit confusing at first, but it does work to establish the different characters and set up the town from the inside out as well as Manfred looking in. But that’s not to say that by the end of the book you’ll know all the answers.
It’s not perfect, it’s not the best thing I’ve ever read – but it really is a nice way of passing an afternoon, especially if you’ve read the previous series. It’s not the same genre really as the True Blood books – but it’s closer to them than any of her other series are.
As I said, my copy came from NetGalley – in advance of the UK paperback release on April 9 – you can pre-order that from Amazon or Foyles. I can hear you pointing out the contradiction in not having my Book Club book as BotW because it’s not out yet – and then reviewing this which isn’t out for another week, and to that I offer you the Kindle link (and for the US readers, the amazon.com link because the paperback is already out there!) – although I’m sure the price will drop once the paperback comes out. But you can get a sample now to see if you like it, while you can’t even get a sneak peak of my Book Club novel yet – it’s not out for three and a half weeks (or indeed the end of May in the US). And it’s cruel to recommend something and make people wait that long!
* Having been reading the Dear Author palarva over the weekend, I’ve resolved to make sure I’m even more upfront about where my books come from – I already say on Goodreads if my copy was from NetGalley or similar, and I try to here, but I’m redoubling my efforts. Transparency is key…
** I’ve bought book four after reading Midnight Crossing. I suspect the second Omnibus is in my future…
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 